Advice Is What We Ask For
by Pesky Ixy Pesternomi
Summary: Advice is what we ask for, when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't. A oneshot, for the four houses competition. My hufflepuff character is Leanne.


**Written for Part One: Hufflepuff, of Rising From The Flames' "The Four Houses Competition" My hufflepuff character was Leanne, and my genre was crime. I was given two different quotes and I decided to integrate the both of them.**

_**K is for "Kenghis Khan." He was a very nice person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere - Harlan Ellison**_

_**Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. -Erica Jong**_

**I truly hope that you all enjoy this fic, and know that I own nothing but the plot. **

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Leanne was completely and utterly distraught. How could somebody have done this to Katie? How had Leanne not realized it sooner? She felt as if the entire incident were her fault. If only she had gone to the restroom with Katie, or had realized something was off about her the moment she came back. Then Katie wouldn't have been attacked. Her very dearest friend Katie wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed in St. Mungo's now.

The very thought set Leanne into another round of tears.

She couldn't just sit around and do nothing, she felt the need to get up and try to solve the mystery of who had put Katie into her current condition. So she got up from her four poster bed and stumbled downstairs into the common room. Looking around she made sure nobody would notice her leaving so late and slipped out of the common room and past the large portrait of a fruit bowl, and made her way up the stairs towards the Headmaster's office.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do, but she did know she had to do something. If nothing else, she was sure that Professor Dumbledore might have some more information for her, and to be honest, she just wouldn't be able to sleep without knowing something.

Leanne was so focused on where she was going, that she wasn't even paying attention to the route she was taking, and ran smack dab into a hard warm body.

"Watch where you're going would you?" A harsh voice reached her ears. Leanne couldn't believe it, who would be out at this... Oh. Malfoy. She glared at him, before realizing something looked off about him. His eyes were red and his hair was disheveled. He looked entirely distraught, and that alarmed her. Leanne had never seen Malfoy looking anything but perfect.

"What's your problem?" She asked cynically. She knew nothing good could come from Malfoy wandering the halls late at night.

"What your tone would you? I'm a fucking prefect for goodness sakes!" He exclaimed.

"So take points." Leanne shrugged coolly. "My day couldn't get any worse, not that you would ever care." Leanne thought she saw a flash of recognition in his eyes, but realized it must have been a trick of the light. They looked at each other for a few more moments, before Malfoy said something that completely surprised her.

"I'm sorry. About your friend you know." He told her quietly, almost as if he himself couldn't believe he was saying it. Leanne was silent for a moment, studying him.

"What do you have to be sorry about?" She asked. "You didn't curse her." Leanne witnessed Malfoy's face twist briefly into an indescribable expression, before he opened his mouth as if thinking carefully upon his next words.

"You're right. I didn't." He said finally, as if it pained him to do so. "But still, I'm sorry." Leanne contemplated him for another few moments, before deciding that maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"You know Malfoy, you should really try to be human more often." She told him finally. "You're much more likable. But that's just my advice." Then she turned to continue her way to the Headmaster's office. She was halfway down the hallway before she heard him call out to her.

"What advice would you give to somebody who wanted to be a good person, but didn't know how?" He asked, quiet enough to where she could just barely hear him. Leanne turned and looked at him curiously.

"Well I suppose I would say that they were on the right track..." She said slowly, before smiling a little. "And that maybe he should follow the example of somebody he knows to be a nice person." Malfoy scoffed.

"History keeps no record of nice people, everyone knows that." He muttered. Leanne smiled again.

"Maybe you aren't looking in the right places." She said simply, before turning and leaving him in the darkened hall.


End file.
